MY SELF EMPLOYMENT JOURNEY

#mentorshipmatters #selfemployment #entrepreneurship

THE JOURNEY TO SELF EMPLOYMENT Around this time 2 years ago, I was busy serving my 4 weeks notice with my former employer. I have quit my job to go work into self employment 3 times so far, the first time was in Zimbabwe around May/June 2007 and a few weeks later Robert Mugabe announced a crippling prize control blitz that left my retail business almost bankrupt. Fortunately I had applied for a work visa to South Africa. The second time was in October 2017 after 10 years with my employer in Centurion. I was to go back to work 6 months later not because I was struggling but due to my success especially with my Zimbabwean piggery project I needed a payslip in order to access a personal loan to open one or two butcheries. I went back to work in April 2018 and that decision directly led to the demise of my Zimbabwean venture, I realised that it was a costly mistake, I should have been more patient and gave myself more time to expand. Finally beginning of May 2021, I quit for the third time. Leaving a guaranteed salary is scary but fortunately for me I had earned a performance based salary for the last 13 years, so essentially I had been self employed for the last 15 years. I told myself, “Why are you scared, you are self employed anyway”. Another important thing is not to over consult. I only told my uncle a year later that by the way, I was no longer employed, he said it was mistake. I almost told him that dude you have been a security guard for almost 32 years I wouldn’t have come for advice to you to go into self-employment. For me starting a hustle has two motivations being pull factors and push factors. If I trace my journey, I started my very first hustle in 1999. After I joined the insurance industry in 1997 I had a goal to buy a house early on and I took an investment policy to build up a homeloan deposit with Old Mutual and when they demutualised I was awarded 200 shares around 1998/1999. Growing up at home my mother ran a tuckshop from our kitchen window and as the first born I was in charge of that business. She also raised broiler chicken, I was involved in that also. It’s no coincidence that my first 2 hustles were broiler chicken farming from early 1999 and then general dealer shops from 2001 onwards. When I sold my demutualisation shares early 1999 I had capital to buy asbestos roofing sheets and timber to expand my fowl runs. From the time I started working in 1996 I became a bread winner so doing side hustles was important to earn extra income. Then in Zimbabwe I had very good career opportunities. By the time I passed my Associateship exams in 2003, I had been a manager since end of 2002. I rose through the rank, the benefits I got from my job such as the use of company vehicles helped me in my hustles. From around 2004 when we entered a hyper inflation environment in Zimbabwe having side hustles made sense and eventually from 2005 I started thinking of quitting my job to go into self employment. After coming to South Africa, I realised quickly that I would have very limited career prospects and I started experimenting with a few side hustles. Whilst in Zimbabwe doing side hustles was a pull factor, in SA it was going to be push factors. By around 2008/2009 I took a decision not to apply for promotion anymore when I concluded that unlike in Zimbabwe, the promotion here was not based on merit. I got to study for an accounting degree in SA hoping to change careers. In hindsight getting an accounting degree is the best qualification I ever got as I don’t need to be employed to utilise it.